I threw my back out on Friday and haven’t been able to sit at my desk for any great length of time, so posts and gaming have been neglected on this long holiday weekend. Thankfully today (four days later) I’m feeling about 95% better, so it’s time for things to get back on track! Pictured above, my cleric in King’s Breach, also known as the zone I hate the most. I was healing the expert version of it yesterday and thankfully we beat the final named on the first run. Not everyone survived, but if they can’t move to the location without the spikes before the spikes get them there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. I did switch out my healing spec to another one for the fight though to better help the group.
I typically run with a cookie cutter single target heal spec, it gives me big heals on the tank and two heals for the group. I have an in combat rez which I can not stress enough as being VERY IMPORTANT. If you go into a group as support I highly suggest you have an in combat rez. I don’t understand players who do not. Mages are even luckier, because theirs is on a 5 minute cool down, where as the cleric requires 10. There’s nothing fancy about this 34/32 build, it plays much the same as my WoW discipline cleric, shields are your best friend. I’ve healed all of the T1/T2 dungeons with this spec and have no complaints at all. I have a macro to cure upon mouseover, which is really handy.
I also have an AoE healing build, for Rifts and encounters where the group is taking more damage then I would like, such as the final fight in King’s Breach. This spec also comes with an in combat rez, which I love. Most of my heals are HoT, which is nice when the group is taking damage because you never really need a whole lot of massive single target heals. I use the same mouseover cure button from the previous build, remember you NEED TO CURE group mates.
Then there is my DPS build, the duracell build. It’s made for AoE fights, and as I said before I run this spec with three macros, one for single targets, one for AoE damage, and one for mana regeneration. I never run out of mana and as long as there are numerous mobs around my DPS is amazing (plus you’ve got to love the heals from doctrine). There are videos and a lot of commentary about this spec over on the Rift Forums.
I also have a tank spec in my fourth slot, and if I could afford the 5th build (it’s 100p ouch) I would have that as my pvp build (I recently got rid of it for my tank build). Tanks are tricky creatures to play as a cleric. You do far better at aggro management if you’re dealing with more then one mob, and the heals you proc also help generate threat. Wisdom is the main contributing factor to your block / parry / dodge skills, and a shield is a must. I’m debating getting myself a full tank set of gear, but for now I need to finish off my T2 for heals / dps. I picked up another planar focus so that I can fill it with tank-like planar essences. I need to do a few more DRR before I can purchase the good ones, but I’m feeling confident so far.
There are countless other builds and I wish we had more then five of them on hand at one time (and I wish they were not quite so expensive to unlock). I’ve been running around Freemarch when I can, looking for red shinies with my quantum sight. There are so many blasted shinies in this game!
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
stargrace 
